The Telegraph reports:
07.23 [2015-07-30 07:23 - The most recent items are at the top of the page]
A metallic object described as six to nine feet long and three feet wide was found on a beach on the east coast of Reunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean. The object had the code number "BB670" on it.
[...] Why do officials think the object is from [missing Malaysian airliner] MH370?
[...] First, aviation experts say the object appears to be from a Boeing 777--and no other such aircraft is believed to have gone missing in the region. No Boeing 777 has ever been lost at sea.
Second, ocean experts say the object [a flaperon] is exactly where debris would have washed up from the plane's presumed crash point, several thousand miles to the east. Currents in that part of the Indian Ocean move anti-clockwise and would have carried the object northwards from the current search zone, off the coast of Western Australia, and then westwards towards Reunion.
[...] 13.21
The man who found the piece of wreckage [...] Johnny Bègue [...] is [in] charge of a team of eight people who have a contract to keep the popular beach clean in the town of Saint-Andre in the east of the tropical island.[...] the piece of a suitcase that may have been onboard flight MH370 lay unnoticed on the same beach [...] for nearly a day.
Related Stories
CNN and USA Today report that investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, who worked with Geoscience Australia, Boeing and the Australian National University, have concluded that two pieces of wreckage found in December and February on the coast of Mozambique "almost certainly" came from the disappeared Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
previous story:
Piece of 777 Wing Found on Reunion Island; Likely from MH370
(Score: 1, Troll) by wonkey_monkey on Friday July 31 2015, @11:17AM
This is a hell of a jumble for a summary. There are plenty of coherent articles, rather than what amounts to a Twitter-esque feed of speculation, that could have been cut-and-pasted from.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-33728658 [bbc.co.uk]
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 1, Troll) by No Respect on Friday July 31 2015, @11:28AM
Y'all get back to me when it's confirmed that it's from the missing aircraft, OK? Until then stop wasting everyone's time with what it MIGHT be. I'll even concede that it probably IS from MH370, but that doesn't change my stance. STFU until you know for sure. kthxbye
I swear to FSM I hate the fucking MSM and twitter ain't far behind.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by shrewdsheep on Friday July 31 2015, @11:31AM
Why don't you just skip the article?
I, for one, hope to learn something about airplane identification from insightful/informative comments.
(Score: 3, Informative) by EvilSS on Friday July 31 2015, @12:35PM
Well it's confirmed to be a part from a 777. Since every other 777 on the planet still has that part attached to it or accounted for in its assembly pipeline or crash debris from all the other 777 crashes (for which all the locations are know and are on land, not the ocean), it really can only be from one specific 777.
(Score: 3, Informative) by gman003 on Friday July 31 2015, @12:55PM
Well, it's now been confirmed [abc.net.au] via the serial numbers that it's from a 777. Only five have ever been lost - two crashed short of their runways, one burned at the gate, one was shot down by Russians over Ukraine, and the last was MH370. I can think of a few hypotheses besides MH370 that would have a flaperon wash up on shore, but their probability is minute. I'm 99% confident it's MH370.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday July 31 2015, @07:32PM
We need a new modifier: -1 - Shaddap You Face
(Score: 3, Funny) by ghost on Friday July 31 2015, @01:09PM
But there are also prominent MH370 researchers that believe it followed a northern route, landed intact at Diego Garcia, or some other destination. To throw us off the trail, they planted the flaperon in the ocean where it could wash up and be found "proving" the SIO crash happened. Meanwhile, the rest of the plane is in a remote Russian airport hangar!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2015, @01:44PM
Man... I need to brush up on my conspiracy theories. I have not heard that one before.
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Friday July 31 2015, @05:07PM
;-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2015, @07:48PM
Well, it seems to indicate that there was a controlled landing.
With the slats extended to maximize lift, contact with the ocean would put a lot of stress on those rather vulnerable pieces (relative to the rest of the airframe) and tear those loose.
It could indicate that the remainder of the aircraft is in 1 piece or just a few pieces, making an investigation easier, should that location be found.
Had the aircraft augured in, completely out of control, the forces on everything would be much greater and the damage to everything would be extreme, causing the debris field to be much larger and more difficult to deal with--and resulting in more pieces that might have already been beached.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Saturday August 01 2015, @08:08AM
Had the aircraft augured in, completely out of control, the forces on everything would be much greater and the damage to everything would be extreme
I wasn't aware you had a background in air crash investigation.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Saturday August 01 2015, @09:01AM
> Well, it seems to indicate that there was a controlled landing.
> With the slats extended to maximize lift, contact with the ocean would put a lot of stress on those rather vulnerable pieces (relative to the > rest of the airframe) and tear those loose.
the flaperon is also (primary function?) an inboard aileron, hence the name, and hence is extended for roll control at high speed as much as lift at low speed, so it shows nothing about speed of impact. sim experiments have shown that a 777 out of fuel with no one at the controls will descend in a phugoid not at excessive speed, it could therefore have impacted intact and at almost any ang
the suitcase may turn out to be more interesting IF it is from mh370 - some rumours say it shows fire damage, if so itwould be unlikely to get that in the ocean or on impact...